No Gonski 2.0 in the bush

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Sir – Scott Morrison needs to stand up and fund the full 30% of the School Resourcing Standard (SRS) required to meet the needs of Territory students.

There is the misguided belief by the Turnbull government that funding all schools the same at 20% of the SRS provides equity and meets individual student needs. Nothing could be further from the truth and we counter this with “equal does not result in equity”.

The fact that a public school in a high socio-economically advantaged area in Canberra will be funded the same as a remote school in the middle of the desert or in Arnhem Land means the federal government has not delivered Gonski student needs based funding.

The NT has one of the highest socio-economically disadvantaged populations in Australia. In 2015 the average Index of Community Socio-Educational Advantage for NT Government schools was 758, compared to a national average of 1000.

In addition we have a small population and it is unreasonable to expect the Territory to be able to fund the balance of 80% of the SRS when we simply do not generate the income that larger states do.

Last week, the Coalition Government passed off an additional $35.6m for 2018 to 2021 as additional funding to recognise our higher needs.

This isn’t money which will provide for additional teachers and support staff. This money is not part of the SRS and as Senator Nigel Scullion has advised this is “to accelerate evidence-based reforms to improve outcomes for vulnerable students”.

We don’t know yet what these Canberra reforms are, which this money is tied to, but what we do know is it is not recurrent, ongoing funding for schools.

The additional money announced today is not to meet our individual student’s need’s nor will it adjust and account for our growing student numbers each year.

Whilst additional money is welcomed, it still ignores that the NT is expected to transition down from our current ongoing school funding of 24% to 20%.

The Council of Government School Organisations represents over 19,000 Northern Territory families, their 34,500 children and the school communities that support them, in 153 public schools.

One Comment (starting with the most recent)

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John Bell

Posted June 30, 2017 at 11:38 am

Ms Fudge voices the funding concerns of the public school system in disadvantaged NT communities under Gonski 2.0.
Public school concerns should be considered alongside the concerns of the Catholic school system.
Historically, the first education system in Australia was established in colonial times by Mother Mary McKillop, who established 117 schools for the disadvantaged and discriminated-against Catholic community.
The Catholic system did not discriminate; any non-Catholic child could attend its schools. This prompted governments to set up a public school system that we know today.
Down through the generations, the Catholic school system education authorities have scrimped and scraped with an enviable reputation for highest quality teaching and for spreading their funding far more efficiently than the public system.
Any arguments put forward by Ms Fudge’s public school system in the NT under Gonski 2.0 in 2017 should be accompanied by arguments from its NT Catholic system funding partner so that a balanced representation of the on-the-ground education needs of all kids in the NT in all remote community disadvantaged situations is put on the government table